Boston College Women's Hockey Stumbles in Opener at Minnesota
The Boston College women's hockey know knew it would be a tall task walking into a season opener against the third ranked team in the country, and the Minnesota Golden Gophers needed less than a period to remind the Eagles why.
Goaltender Grace Campbell kept Boston College in the game, saving the first ten shots before the first media timeout. However, the break seemed to be all the host Golden Gophers needed to take control, and subsequently scored five goals in five minutes and five seconds to bury the Eagles.
Anabella Fanale started her career off with a pair of goals, getting the games scoring started and scoring a power-play goal, the only goal of the twelve combined power-play opportunities, three minutes later. Other goal scorers included Chloe Primerano, Kendra Distad, and Abbey Murphy. Boston College failed to record a shot attempt in the first period, while Minnesota tested Campbell 26 times.
In the second period, it was former Eagle Molly Jordan who received a pass at the blue line, cut to her left before driving in, finding a shooting lane, and snapping a wrister bar down over the right shoulder of Campbell.
Later that period, Boston College got on the board as a back-handed pass behind the crease from Alanna Devlin set up Ava Thomas perfectly, with the freshman banking it off a sliding Hannah Clark to record her first collegiate goal. Thomas has impressed since arriving on campus; the U18 World Juniors gold medalist scored a pair of goals against Stonehill in an exhibition last Saturday.
The only goal in the third period would go to Minnesota’s Nelli Laitinen who scored off an assist from Madison Kaiser during four-on-four play. The goal pushed the score to 7-1 and saw the Golden Gophers secure a season opening victory.
Despite a disappointing score line, a strong forty minutes of competitive hockey to end the game against a national championship contender gave the Eagles something to build off of. There were bright spot on the team; as mentioned above Ava Thomas showed early signs of being a key piece of the offense, Cailin Flynn brought the effort blocking six shots, and the penalty kill held Minnesota to just one goal on six opportunities, far below the Golden Gopher’s 35.6 percent conversion rate from a year ago.
Grace Campbell may not want to leave the ice bath after making 41 saves, including 21 in the first period, however it’s a quick turnaround for herself and the rest of the Eagles with the two teams facing off once again Friday evening.
SEE ALSO: 2025-26 Women's Hockey East Preseason Preview and Power Rankings
First Career goal alert!! pic.twitter.com/2rCRQsLV7h
— Boston College Women's Hockey (@BC_WHockey) September 26, 2025
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Chris Vogel has spent the last five years in sports media; including as a play-by-play broadcaster for ACC Network Extra and Hockey East on ESPN. He’s a graduate of the University of Massachusetts and in his final year as a graduate student at Boston College, where he serves as the radio voice of Boston College Women’s Hockey on WZBC 90.3; the flagship radio network of Boston College Women’s Athletics. He’s the host of the “All Things Hockey” podcast, and cover women’s college hockey for College Hockey On SI.
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